KUALA LUMPUR: Halal Industry Development Corp (HDC) has revised upwards its 2013 investment target for the local industry to RM1.5 billion from RM1 billion, said chief executive officer, Datuk Seri Jamil Bidin.
“We have surpassed the previous target. We have recorded RM1.02 billion worth of investments currently whereby cumulatively, for the past four to five years, the investments amounted to RM7.7 billion.
“We’re seeing more potential investments coming in, and sectors contributing to them are mostly in the food and beverage line while a couple of potential investors are from the cosmetics and ingredient segments,” he told Bernama.
Jamil said HDC was not focusing solely on food now as there were a variety of potential investors from different backgrounds such as a potential investor from Japan who produced mayonnaise and seasoning.
“We also see companies who are interested in producing halal ingredients from palm oil because Malaysia has abundant of palm oil.
“This is a good opportunity as palm oil is a good alternative for edible oil and this is what we would like to promote,” he said.
He said HDC recently signed a memorandum of understanding with a Japanese organisation for it to audit the potential investors there, as interests from Japanese companies to invest in Malaysia were rapidly increasing.
“By having this liaison with them, it makes things easier to plan because we may not be able go there every month.
“The Japanese organisation will coordinate the activities and communicate with us,” he said. — Bernama
*This article was published in The Borneo Post. Read the original article here.